Homeschool Geography Curriculum: Around the World Stories

The following post is a collaboration between Around the World Stories and MommyMaestra. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Homeschool parents! If you're raising a world citizen and are searching for a geography curriculum that supports your efforts, then Around the World Stories may be just what you're looking for!

As a mom, one of the most important things I want to pass on to my children is an appreciation for world cultures and travel. I’ve been traveling ever since I was a kid, and my husband and I have tried hard to continue traveling with our kids while they are growing up. So when I was given the opportunity to review Around the World Stories, a program created to make learning about countries around the world, I enthusiastically agreed. Here's what I think about it...

Geography & Social Studies Curriculum

I love it when I can knock out more than one subject at a time. And I especially love it when a company recognizes that geography is more than just memorizing maps and names. It’s about the people and the traditions and the culture. And this curriculum - Around the World Stories - does exactly that. It combines both geography and social studies to help make countries around the world come alive for kids using audiobook stories, printable activities, and cultural information. My 8 year old is the perfect age for this program, and I will be able to use it for several more years, so this is a winner, winner, chicken dinner in my book. Overall, the program is best suited for kids ages 4 or 5 to 11-years-old.

If I wasn't a homeschooler, I would still be intrigued by this program. Especially since many schools no longer teach geography. If that was the case, I think I would use this program over the summer with my kids, or as a weekend activity once a month.

Printable Learning Activities

Around the World Studies is like a digital library. Parents (or students) can login to the website and select a country that they want to learn about. The country’s home page pops up with 5 tabs to choose from:

• Stories (more about that in a minute)

• Exploring [Country]

• Arts & Culture

• Food

• Printables

The Exploring tab gives you a broad overview of the country with little sections that highlight important aspects of the country. For example, when I select the country Spain and click on the Exploring Spain tab, I learn a lot of fun facts about the country, such as their New Year’s tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight, or that Spain has more than 3,000 miles of coastline, or what Spanish tapas are. The topics selected for this page typically relate back to the stories that are shared for each country. 

In Art & Culture, they talk about Flamenco, Cubism, and the master painter, Picasso. I like that it included an art project with video tutorials for creating your own Cubist painting. And in the Food tab, they highlight iconic foods and even include printable recipes!

It seemed to me that most of the tabs included at least one printable activity, but you can easily find them all in one place under the Printables tab. This just makes it easier to find them once you’ve finished listening to the stories and going through the tabs.

The Stories

The real highlight of this curriculum, though, are the stories. Around the World Stories has written original stories that they have then uploaded as audiobooks. Each country has several to choose from. They typically run about 30 minutes.

My 8yo finds the stories engaging for two reasons: 

1. Different characters are often portrayed by different voice actors, including kids.

2. The stories themselves are unique and fun to listen to.

I like that I can play the stories anytime and anywhere. We can listen in long car rides, during our school lessons, or even at bed time. The first night we listened to one before bed, we thought it was a fun change from our traditional bedtime reading routine. In fact, my son asked if we could listen to another the next night. For now, I have agreed to listen to one once a week instead of reading a bedtime story.

And since I know that audiobooks play such a valuable role in my son’s reading development, I can take extra joy in listening.

Great for Individuals or Groups

This semester, I have the pleasure of helping out our local homeschool co-op by teaching Global Cultures & Travel Studies to middle schoolers. I have found this program to be such a great way to supplement my lessons. Each week, I choose a different country to teach about. While designing my lesson, I use Around the World Stories as a reference for topics and printable resources. Time doesn’t really allow for me to use the stories, and my students may be a little old for them anyway, but the printable activities were a great addition.

Right now, Around the World Stories offers content for 21 countries:

• Austria 

• China

• Czech Republic

• England

• France

• Germany

• Greece

• India

• Ireland

• Italy

• Japan

• Nepal

• Netherland

• Poland

• Portugal

• Russia

• South Korea

• Spain

• Thailand

• Turkey

• Vietnam

Want to see them add a particular country? Follow them on Facebook or Instagram and let them know!

How it Works

Around the World Stories is a subscription-based program. For $29.95 a month, you get a ticket each month to use in the digital library. Just login to the website and click on Stories to see the list of countries. Click on the one you want to learn about that month and get immediate access. Or you can choose the yearly option and get 12 tickets all at once. And if you use up all 12 before the year is out? No worries, you can buy extra tickets at any time. 

If your kids are still too young (or are grown up), but it would be perfect for nieces, nephews, or grandchildren, then you'll be happy to know that they also offer Gift Certificates!

The hardest part of it all is figuring out which country to start with!

If this program sounds like a good fit for your child, visit their website today to learn more.

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Other Posts for Elementary Resources that You May Enjoy:

• 40 Ways to Create a Multicultural Homeschool
  
  
• Igniting Wonder for World Cultures with Picture Books
  
  
• App Review: World Music for Kids with Daria Music

National Geographic Learning & Cengage

Heads up, homeschoolers! I wanted to make sure that you know about the Spanish/Dual-Language materials available from National Geographic Learning.

Their materials cover:

• Literacy
• Reading
• Social Studies
• Science
• and Language Development

You can take a look at their online catalog here.

Latino American Resources from PBS Learning Media

I share a lot of resources on MommyMaestra for elementary students, but this week I'm going to focus on older children. And I'm starting off with one of the online education portals that you may already be familiar with: PBS Learning Media.

A few years ago, PBS ran a special documentary series: Latino Americans. You may have watched it. If not, it is an EXCELLENT media resource for your Latino Studies lessons at home or classroom. You can find it here. (aff link)

(There's an awesome book written by Ray Suarez to accompany the series, but more about that in my next post.)

A snippet of a larger lesson plan about Latinos at the Ballot Box on PBS Learning Media

PBS Learning Media also has a fair collection of themed multimedia lesson plans for students in 4th through 12th grade to accompany the documentary. But before you ask, many of the lessons can be used independently. I love that the lesson plans include so many primary texts and well-researched historical sources, as well as downloadable materials for student use. The activities require critical thinking about each subject, some of which include:

• Who Are Latinos?
• Identity, Immigration and Economics: Involuntary Deportations of the 1930s
• Digging at the Roots of Your Family Tree
• Stereotypes vs. Statistics (grades 4 - 8) AND/OR (grades 9 - 12)
• Latinos at the Ballot Box
• Stories of Arrival
• What's In a Name?
• Students Rising
• Organizing the Farm Worker Movement
• Extranjeros & Expansion
• Puerto Rican Perspectives
• Cuban Exodus
• Journey from Mexico
• The Mexican-American War
• Spanish-American War

And there are quite a few biographies, too.

These are quality materials that should not be overlooked by teachers and parents. If you are teaching a multicultural studies class to your children or students, this is a must-have.

Those of you who must contend with Common Core and state standards, each lesson plan also has a list of the standards that are met.

TEACHER BONUS: All of these lessons are Google Classroom friendly and may be assigned directly from the lesson plans.

To take a look at all of the lesson plans they have available on this subject, click here.

REVIEW: VISUAL LEARNING BOOKS from Sunflower Education

Today I was excited to have the chance to review one of the new visual learning books from Sunflower Education (aff link), and I have to say that I love these teacher resource books that provide blueprints and instructions for creating full-scale, actual-size drawings and diagrams with sidewalk chalk. Both of my kids are visual, hands-on learners. They learn best with projects or activities that establish in their minds whatever it is we're studying. So this book with its directions for making full-scale drawings is such a great resource for us. And teachers, homeschoolers, parents and kids alike will also enjoy drawing their own

Created by teachers, the Social Studies book is divided into seven categories: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (i.e., Lighthouse of Alexandria), iconic images of the Old World (like a Viking ship or medieval castle), Native America (e.g., an Iroquois Longhouse), U.S. History (like a prairie schooner), Historic Transportation (such as the Santa Maria!), Warfare (think modern tanks), and American Landmarks (remember the Alamo?).

Each category features the directions to drawing several different images most closely associated with it. This is such a fantastic tool for supplementing your child's social studies lessons and bringing them to life. The dimensions of each image have been thoroughly researched for accuracy. And each activity comes with four sections: Prepare gives you a rough estimate of how much time the project might take and lists the materials needed to complete the drawing; Focus talks about the history behind each project; Present gives you ideas about different ways to create the drawing; and Conclusion shares ways to bring the lesson to a close.

For kids who are artists at heart, this book helps develop their sense of proportion and reveals the intimate connection between math and art. What a treat to be able to cover such a variety of subjects (social studies/history, math, art, and reading) with one simple activity. We're headed to the library parking lot soon with some chalk and measuring tape. We just have to figure out what image we want to draw.

How much fun would it be to draw the Alamo?

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